Aside

Contact Info

Skills

Disclaimer

Last updated on 2022-08-08.

Main

Michael J. Sieler Jr. 

Summary

• Microbiome scientist with 5+ years of experience developing molecular, computational, and statistical research methods

• Research how multiple environmental factors interact with the gut microbiome to influence host health

• Robust data analytic skills in multivariate statistics and machine learning to drive research experiments forward

• Demonstrated abilities to collaborate and take leadership in cross-laboratory experiments

• Experienced in written, oral and visual communication across scientific and public audiences

Education

*Ph.D. Microbiology, minor in Biological Data Sciences

Oregon State University

Corvallis, Oregon

2020 - estimated 2025

B.Sc. Bioresource Research, options in Bioinformatics and Genomics

Oregon State University

Corvallis, Oregon

2017 - 2020

Work Experience

Owner

MJSieler Consulting

Corvallis, Oregon

May 2022 - Present

Activities: Designed, developed, and deployed educational video game software for clients to fulfill grant requirements for communicating scientific research.

Projects: Virtual Fish

Graduate Research Student

Sharpton Lab (Oregon State University)

Corvallis, Oregon

Sep. 2020 - Present

Activities: Investigate how environmental factors (diet, pollutants, pathogens, etc.) interact with the gut microbiome to influence host health using the zebrafish model organism.

Projects: Impacts of diet & infection, temperature & infection, and chronic antibiotic exposure on gut microbiome

Undergraduate Research Student

Sharpton Lab (Oregon State University)

Corvallis, Oregon

Nov. 2018 - Sep. 2020

Activities: Developed novel gnotobiotic microbiome methods using zebrafish.

Projects: Benzo[a]pyrene effect on zebrafish gut microbiome

Undergraduate Research Student

Mahmud Laboratory (Oregon State University)

Corvallis, Oregon

Nov. 2017 - Nov. 2018

Activities: Assist PhD students and Post-docs with research projects.

Projects: Discovering novel antibiotics

Research Experience

Measure the effect of nanoplastics on the mouse gut microbial community

Statistically analyzed nanoplastic exposure on mouse gut microbial communities

N/A

N/A

Tools: R, DADA2

Meta-analysis of zebrafish gut microbiomes phylogeny

Identified relevant studies and datasets to include in meta-analysis

N/A

N/A

Tools: Python, R, DADA2

Built and maintain Microbial Bioinformatics Hub to collaboratively share microbiome bioinformatic resources

Website for sharing knowledge, methods and tools related to analyzing microbiological data

N/A

N/A

Tools: GitLab, Sphinx and Read the Docs

Developed high-throughput molecular biological and computational pipelines to interrogate gut microbiome

Designed and implemented novel gnotobiotic procedures to process 1,000+ zebrafish embryos to analyze their microbiomes

N/A

N/A

Tools: R, DADA2

Measure resilience of gut microbiome to chronic exposure of antibiotics

Exposed 140 adult zebrafish to varying combinations of antibiotics and controls

N/A

N/A

Tools: R, DADA2

Assess gut microbiome resiliency to anthropological impacts such as temperature and pathogenic exposure

Exposed adult zebrafish to varying combinations of antibiotics and controls

N/A

N/A

Tools: R, DADA2

Investigate the joint interaction effects of pathogen exposure and diet on gut microbiome succession

Fed 180 zebrafish one of three commonly used laboratory diets and exposed half to a common pathogen

N/A

N/A

Tools: R, DADA2

Awards (2)

Science Communication Fellow

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI)

Portland, Oregon

2020 - Present

Recognized for my early significant contributions to scientific research, I was awarded the prestigious ARCS Scholar grant

ARCS Scholar

ARCS Foundation

Corvallis, Oregon

2020 - 2023

Received certified training in informal science education and engagement with public audiences to increase their understanding of STEM research

Certificates (1)

Data Science and Machine Learning Bootcamp with R

Udemy

N/A

2021

Program with R to wrangle, clean, analyze, and visualize data. Apply advanced statistics and machine learning to gain useful insights.

Oral communications (2)

Zebrafish laboratory diets differentially alter gut microbiota composition

3rd Intl. Fish Microbiota Workshop Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences

Online (Beijing, China)

2021

Effects of diet on growth and the microbiome

Zebrafish Husbandry Workshop
Aquaculture

Online (San Diego, CA)

2022

Poster communications (2)

The Gut Microbiome Drives Benzo[a]pyrene’s Impact on Zebrafish Behavioral Development

CAS Student Showcase Oregon State University

Corvallis, Oregon

2019

The Gut Microbiome Drives Benzo[a]pyrene’s Impact on Zebrafish Behavioral Development

2nd Intl. Fish Microbiota Workshop University of Oregon

Eugene, Oregon

2019

Publications (3)

Early Enteric and Hepatic Responses to Ingestion of Polystyrene Nanospheres from Water in C57BL/6 Mice

Joseph A. Szule, Lawrence R. Curtis, Thomas J. Sharpton, Christiane V. Löhr, Susanne Brander, Stacey Harper, Jamie Pennington, Sara J. Hutton, Michael J. Sieler Jr. and Kristin D. Kasschau

N/A

Jul. 2022

Revealing General Patterns of Microbiomes That Transcend Systems: Potential and Challenges of Deep Transfer Learning

Maude M. David, Christine Tataru, Quintin Pope, Lydia J. Baker, Mary K. English, Hannah E. Epstein, Austin Hammer, Michael Kent, Michael J. Sieler Jr., Ryan S. Mueller, Thomas J. Sharpton, Fiona Tomas, Rebecca Vega Thurber and Xiaoli Z. Fern

N/A

Feb. 2022

Phylogenetic Integration Reveals the Zebrafish Core Microbiome and Its Sensitivity to Environmental Exposures

Thomas J. Sharpton, Keaton Stagaman, Michael J. Sieler Jr., Holly K. Arnold and Edward W. Davis

N/A

Jan. 2021